Battier has proven his value and it is not to a team like this, save his legs for next year. Ariza has proven he is a role player, but it is possible the extra minutes will expand his ability. Reduce his minutes to get Chase and JT in.
get somebody...anybody that's qualified shooting guard on the 2 guard spot. listen to Confucius people..
Why not give the guy a chance? Our wing production is really THAT bad that I would actually be excited about seeing a rookie second rounder playing heavy minutes.
JT is legit. I'm sure this kid will be in the rotation at some point but why not now? He is a good on the ball defender and his team defensive IQ will come with playing time. He is, without a doubt, the best slasher on this team by a mile and when your team can't manufacture points why the hell isn't he getting on the court. Worst case scenario is the guy gets to line over and over and gets the opponent in foul trouble. I'm getting to the point where I wonder WTF is wrong with Rick Adelman. Rick is seriously starting to make JVG look like the "player's coach" who is willing to take a chance on young guys. There is NO excuse to continue playing Ariza this many minutes when Chase is clearing outplaying him offensively (and arguably defensively) and JT is coming off the bench and attacking the rim like a pissed off Von Wafer every time Rick gives him a taste of playing time.
This team is going nowhere with or without Ariza. Wonder who is going to be the scapegoat if that happens.
His only played 23 minutes, which could be a start. Brooks's minutes needs to be cut down a little too. Combined with Ariza's reduced minutes, that would give Lowry and Cbud more minutes.
i think rick thinks the same as us: ariza is struggling mightily. i think certain things were promised to ariza (hence the reason he chose us over a contender like cleveland) that will allow him to have more freedom offensively. and we don't want to be a team that breaks promises to free agents to lure them here i guess. i think if ariza was in playing later in his contract, he would be seeing at most 15-18 minutes a game. his play doesn't warrant more than that.
yes... cut our top scorers minutes for lowry. I love lowry's effort but the guy isnt a scorer, doesnt need to be. He can reach for 20 every 5th or 6th game but Brooks is the last player id be looking to reduce... taylor is more athletic, a better dribbler and cannot be a worse shooter then ariza. defense and experience are the only qualities keeping trevor on the court... along with contract verification. I'm not giving up on trevor just yet, but i no longer get excited watching him play, i can tell you that much.
actually one day you will see the light on Ariza. Give him 10 minutes he will suck. Give him 40 he sucks. Tell him not to shoot and he will sulk asking why he signed here . Cant win with him DD. Face it, its Shandon Anderson/Maurice Taylor/Cato/Matt Maloney all over again.
I think I've heard this exact same question before... At what point do we start to worry about our talented rookies exiting stage left looking for greener pastures? I know JT has to keep silent because he's a rookie and hasn't even begun to earn his stripes yet, but I wonder how he must feel about schooling this chump day in day out during practice and then having to watch from the end of the bench while the same chump lays bricks and embarrasses himself for 40 minutes every blessed night. "But they told me the Rockets were a great team to play for!" If this continues much longer, the conversations with his agent will start to get interesting. They paid a couple million bucks to get this guy, didn't they?
I say Adelman should try giving Taylor 7 minutes in the first half of every game. Let's see where it goes from there.
What's JT going to do? Demand a trade? No, he's going to sit at the end of the bench and be happy he's in the NBA. He signed a multiyear contract with the last 2 years team options. He's not going anywhere if the Rockets don't want him to go anywhere. Maybe the d-league...
Maybe JT should set a target date to join the regular rotation, and then call Adrian Wojnarowski and tell him about it. If we're lucky we'll even get to hear the coaches make excuses about how they've got a good thing going and don't want to ruin the chemistry.
Jermaine Taylor time! The guy was a Conference USA stud. The team needs a second ball handler who can score. He definitely needs a few minutes in the 1st half.
I really hope something like that didn't happen with Trevor Ariza's acquisition, t_mac1. Nothing in Ariza's play before or since his arrival leads me to believe that he should have been promised anything like that. I don't think that either Daryl Morey or Rick Adelman are unobservant. But I don't see where they would need to make Ariza promises about anything like playing time and opportunity in order to get Ariza to sign here. What's more likely, to me, is that Ariza's signing was for the next three to five seasons. The Rockets are in transition, so a lot of the players aren't going to be seen accurately because they have roles and responsibilities that they won't be able to consistently fill night in and night out. Ariza is no exception to that, to me. But even so, there comes a time where you have to put the best players that you can on the court, t_mac1. The Rockets have wings, but they don't have the big guard who could play alongside Aaron Brooks. Ideally, you need your guards to have similar levels of ability at ball-handling, decision-making and perimeter shooting. Right now, the Rockets would need to play Chase Budinger more minutes at the two-guard spot just for the sake of balance offensively in the starting lineup, t_mac1. Budinger appears to be able to handle the job, because he has better guard skills than either Ariza or Battier (which is why Lowry, despite his lack of size, plays and shares the backcourt with Brooks a lot). I thin the biggest reason why Budinger hasn't moved into the starting lineup is because that would leave a gaping hole on the bench at the same spot, t_mac1. Ariza and Battier are essentially the same player (as has been pointed out), so you just move the problem to the second unit as opposed to from the starting five. I believe that Kyle Lowry is enough of an offensive facilitator with that second unit to help with that. Lowry is a much better distributor than Aaron Brooks, and isn't looking to score first from the point guard spot. I actually could see either Battier or Ariza playing better with Carl Landry than they do with each other. Landry has, in recent weeks, drawn a lot of attention from opposing defenses, t_mac1. I didn't think that would happen, but Landry has proven to be a terrific low post player (or at least, a guy who could score consistently in the paint). Both Ariza and Battier need as many players drawing defenses and creating openings as possible offensively. That doesn't happen with the starting lineup because, as well as Luis Scola plays, he doesn't command enough of a team's attention in the low post to give Battier or Ariza open looks at the basket from the perimeter. It's been pointed out ad nauseum, t_mac1, but you can't continue to play guys who can't score at the same time on the court, and expect to win games. That seems to be easier to recognize than in the past..... ...but as much as people around here have clamored for heart and effort, when that heart and effort doesn't spell W-I-N, the mob comes out with its pitchforks......
Hiya, Dave_78. I've liked Jermaine Taylor myself. I got to see him play in college in Conference USA a few times. He has a lot more skill and ability than he gets credit for here, because he has to make some adjustments in his game here in the pros. He has unreal athletic ability. His problem is that, so does 90% of the rest of the players in the league. He's not going to contribute often enough on that athleticism alone to make a difference in this league. He has to round out his game. But what he did do well at Central Florida, Dave_78, was carry a team for weeks at a time against competition focused on stopping him. He scored, and there wasn't much anybody could do to stop it. I harp on a player's ability to put the ball in the basket a lot, Dave_78. Not because it's not as important as anything else (balanced players are more preferable in volume than specialists, believe me), but because, sooner or later, you're going to have to manufacture offense. All great defense will do is keep games close enough to manufacture enough points to win. Defense doesn't win championships, Dave_78. Balance does that. You balance out great defense with reliable offense, or your great defense goes home without the prize. Taylor is figuring out what type of player he is, at least for the Rockets. There are more than enough reasons to be patient with Taylor. The Rockets are certainly being patient. But I think he could become a solid contributor for the Rockets soon. Not until after the trade deadline, where the rosters are more-or-less settled. But I believe Taylor can play and play well. He competes on both ends of the floor. He has the skills the Rockets lack at the big guard position, for the most part. But he does need to work on his perimeter shooting. Waiting to see what happens is just half the fun.....!
I am sure JT can become exactly the same player Von was last season. He just needs a chance. But I see a light at the end of the tunnel. Ariza last night only 23 minutes. NICE!
